Sony Now Internally Regulates Sexual Content in Video Games

[matrix07012]

Sony Now Internally Regulates Sexual Content in Video Games
Finally confirming what we already knew

 

The WSJ article is behind a paywall. I recommend reading the OAG article. It's a complete summary of everything regarding this topic,

Quote

Sony’s North American branch has finally confirmed the PS4 censorship policies that were instituted last year back when John Kodera was the president over the division. Kodera is being replaced by Jim Ryan, who used to oversee the PlayStation Europe division. Many games have been censored in light of the new policies, and it was only briefly confirmed to be in place late last year by Sony of Japan president, Atsushi Morita, who said it was to protect the kids and “match global standards”. Well, according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, Sony is currently censoring games on behalf of kids, and they have no plans on stopping.

 

Quote

In the Wall Street Journal article, the spokeswoman from Sony acknowledged the censorship but refused to detail any of the guidelines for the policy. The article states…

“A Sony spokeswoman confirmed the company has established its own guidelines “so that creators can offer well- balanced content on the platform” and gaming “does not inhibit the sound growth and development” of young people. She declined to say when these guidelines were introduced or to discuss them in detail.”

 

Quote

“Two factors last year combined to turn that unease into action, these Sony officials say. One was the rise of the #MeToo movement in the U.S., which pointed to the dangers of being associated with content that some might see as demeaning to women. The second was the emergence of channels on sites like YouTube and Amazon Inc.’s Twitch where gamers play in front of a camera and are watched by fans online. That means games meeting Japan’s laxer standards can get world-wide exposure.”

 

Quote

According to the Wall Street Journal article, an executive at a smaller developer outfit also corroborated what was already mentioned months ago, stating that for smaller developers it’s very costly…

“You don’t know what they will say until you complete the work and submit it for review. And if they are not happy, even if they allowed the same degree of sexuality a few days before, we need to take it back and ask our staff to make adjustments. That’s very costly.”

 

For those wondering, here's a list of games affected: https://www.oneangrygamer.net/sony-ps4-censorship-policy-censored-games/

Spoiler

Arch of the Alchemist – Censored

Brave Neptunia – Censored

Catherine: Full Body – Possibly Censored

Conception Plus – Censored

Date A Live: Rio Reincarnation – Censored

Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet – Censored

Devil May Cry 5 – Censored (only in Aus/Euro regions)

Dragon Star Varnir – Censored

Game Tengoku CrusinMix – Censored

Haruoto Alice Gram – Censored

Mary Skelter 2 – Censored

Nekopara Vol. 1 – Censored

Nora to Ouju to Noraneko Heart – Censored

Omega Labyrinth Z – Banned in U.S., Europe

PlayStation Static and Dynamic Themes – Censored

Saku Saku Love Blooms With The Cherry Blossoms – Censored

Silverio Trinity – Censored

Sengoku Hime 7: Sen’un Tsuranuku Guren no Ishi – Nipple Pokies Censored (PS Vita version for ref)

Senran Kagura: 7EVEN – Censored

Senran Kagura Burst Re:newal – Censored

Super Seducer – Banned

Williams Pinball Vol. 2 – Censored

Yuragi-Sou No Yuuna-San – Censored

 

Policies like this are extremely stupid. Artistic expression is subjective, thus any guidelines like this cannot be objectively enforced and it's purely up to the whims of the censors. 

This is just a part of a puritanical moral panic about D&D turning kids into Satanists and violent games turning kids into murderers jokes turning kids into nazis and lines on screen turning kids into rapists. 

The rules are obviously sensationalist and arbitrary since it's ok for kids to see brutal finishers in MK11, but Dear God, they can't be allowed to see a breast. Any reasonably person can conclude that it's not actually about the kids.

 

Sauce: https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2019/04/sony-says-ps4-censorship-is-to-protect-young-people-japanese-dev-acknowledges-censoring-games-is-very-costly/82283/4/

WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/sony-cracks-down-on-sexually-explicit-content-in-games-11555427944

 

Related thread:

 

[TacoSenpai]

Sony censors what Nintendont.

 

 

Sorry I had to take the opportunity.  Honestly if Nintendo did a commercial like that it would be hilarious little throwback to the Gensis vs SNES days.

[Yoinkerman]

Isn't this why game ratings exist

[Stefan Payne]

Yeah, they are in a certain area that is more puretanian than the fundamental Christians.

Was bound to happen sooner or later...

 

And its not really a good idea to censor stuff. 
that just alienates the consumers, who mostly don't care about all that radical shit and just want to play a game. And want it in all the glory that the game was intended to be.

[matrix07012]

Just now, VegetableStu said:

quick unrelated question: are recent Dead or Alive games still somewhat ecchi? o_o

The last one isn't, but the F2P spin-off is.

[DeScruff]

7 minutes ago, Yoinkerman said:

Isn't this why game ratings exist

Yep.
The ESRB, Pegi, and Cero have their own problems, but underrating sexual content isn't one of them. At least from what I recall.

[Slurs Gang]

Japan invented Hentai and now that they want to censored it. What the fuck man.

[Trixanity]

40 minutes ago, Slurs Gang said:

Japan invented Hentai and now that they want to censored it. What the fuck man.

When in Rome.

[Commodus]

56 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

quick unrelated question: are recent Dead or Alive games still somewhat ecchi? o_o

Well, there's some slightly sketchy things (like how many female characters are 'conveniently' 18) in the core series, but I'd say the genuinely problematic stuff is in the DOA Xtreme games.  There's this creepy, distinctly non-consensual vibe to it with features like a "golden fan" that gets you upskirt views.

[Stefan Payne]

50 minutes ago, Slurs Gang said:

Japan invented Hentai and now that they want to censored it. What the fuck man.

Its not Japan, its our all favorite US of A State: California.

That's where Sony Interactive Entertainment is located...

And of course, its more or less San Francisco...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Interactive_Entertainment

[Slurs Gang]

6 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Its not Japan, its our all favorite US of A State: California.

That's where Sony Interactive Entertainment is located...

 And of course, its more or less San Francisco...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Interactive_Entertainment

So Japanese games are going get censored if it contains sexual contents too? 

 

This is not fair. They should make an uncensored games too. 

[Stefan Payne]

1 minute ago, Slurs Gang said:

So Japanese games are going get censored if it contains sexual contents too? 

This is not fair. They should make an uncensored games too. 

pls write a complaint in Japanese and send it to the Japanese HQ.

 

IMO the best way might be the good old paper mail.

[Slurs Gang]

Just now, Stefan Payne said:

pls write a complaint in Japanese and send it to the Japanese HQ.

  

IMO the best way might be the good old paper mail.

Do you know Japanese? 

[matrix07012]

15 minutes ago, Slurs Gang said:

So Japanese games are going get censored if it contains sexual contents too? 

 

This is not fair. They should make an uncensored games too. 

Already happening

 

[TimeOmnivore]

Is this related to that issue with the beams of light in DMC V, covering Trish/Lady's naked bodies, which were only present in the Western PS4 version?

 

I will never understand these sorts of ridiculous censorship decisions - does Sony really think they're helping anyone here? If people want to see sexual content, there are only a million or so other places they can easily go to look at them. The only thing Sony's doing is telling the world that certain games - chosen on a purely subjective basis - will be objectively worse on their platform compared to others.

 

Let the parents parent; if they don't want their kids looking at sexual imagery in video games, they can deal with that themselves - that's part of the reason game ratings even exist. Taking the step to block this stuff for everyone just insults regular adults who are fully capable at looking at naked CGI without harming themselves or anyone else.

[NeuesTestament]

It is really cuestionable to speak about "Global standards" when it comes to regulating sexual content. As if there is no difference of what is acceptable between Saudi Arabia and France.

[poochyena]

Just don't buy sony games. not really a big deal.

[Taf the Ghost]

1 hour ago, NeuesTestament said:

It is really cuestionable to speak about "Global standards" when it comes to regulating sexual content. As if there is no difference of what is acceptable between Saudi Arabia and France.

Yup, though what they really mean is "cause a consumer firestorm that riles up the Western Internet". That's really what they mean by "global standards", as classical anthropology will tell you that's very few consistent social mores across even most modern cultures.  

[Taf the Ghost]

4 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

Yeah, they are in a certain area that is more puretanian than the fundamental Christians.

Was bound to happen sooner or later...

 

And its not really a good idea to censor stuff. 
that just alienates the consumers, who mostly don't care about all that radical shit and just want to play a game. And want it in all the glory that the game was intended to be.

That's not surprising. American Progressivism spawned out of the New England-area Protestant Churches. So the people pushing this stuff are ideologically Puritans by nature. They just replaced God for "the good of all" and changed around some of the expected social policies. These would be the same people that managed to ban Alcohol in the USA for a while, and I can't wait for the anti-masturbation campaigns again. (Not joking on the last one. Look it up. It was "Save the Rain Forests" movement of the 1910s.)

 

The problem we have is that there is no limit to how annoying they'll get. The failure of Progressivism is always that it needs something to "Progress to". This causes Purity Spirals and One-Upping for reasons of vanity. (See the current "I'm more of a victim than you are!" aspects to chunks of modern, Western cultures to see what it looks like.) Sony Japan will eventually need to crack some heads when it gets out of hand.

 

That being said, there's always local social norms & conventions that games will need to be adapted to. After the Hot Coffee fiasco, it's always important to understand that 18+ Games, unless they're explicitly Adult VN games, are going to be purchased by parents for teenagers. Thus you either have to market it as a hard "not for children" or you need to take certain precautions. 

 

But, seriously, just give the weebs their anime titties. No one but them cares.

[DragonTamer1]

I asked my Japanese friend about this, he hadn't heard of it before I mentioned it to him. He's PISSED. His girlfriend is even more pissed which surprised me a bit.

[RejZoR]

This puritan stupidity is reaching absurd levels.

 

a) This is something PARENTS should be regulating, not bloody corporations or governments

b) Since when is sex, a thing that CREATES lives, less acceptable than fuck ton of games with killing (a thing that TAKES lives!)?

 

Wtf is wrong with our god damn retarded society? Is this the 1600's again or some shit? It seems like we've gone from puritanism into open and progressive society in the 90's and early 2000's and now we're regressing into puritanism again. Fuck me.

[Trik'Stari]

 

I'll just leave this here, because it perfectly explains everything that needs to be said about this subject. Remember, deplorable violence is okay, as long as no one says any dirty words.

 

God bless South Park (coming from an atheist)

[Chett_Manly]

We will just have to accept that our entertainment is going to be censored to protect the feelings of virtue signaling woke progressives. A small minority of the population that has undue influence because of their wealth and large presence in the tech sector gets to ban you from having content that they feel is indecent. Sony has now fallen under their control as so many other tech and media companies. There is no push back, because unlike in the 90s with the religious right, they already infiltrated the organizations from within, and silenced dissenting voices. 

 

 

[MoonSpot]

10 hours ago, Slurs Gang said:

Japan invented Hentai and now that they want to censored it. What the fuck man.

Hentai was 'invented' or popularized b/c JP basically wouldn't allow p0rnz.  So this could be considered as an expansion of censorship to further include more and/or all 'art' rather than some sort of take-back.

 

Back up your skyrim mods, they'll be coming for mods next.  Maybe M$ bought havok for a reason.  Dems whamens wants to steal ur spurgz

/s

[Slurs Gang]

12 minutes ago, MoonSpot said:

Hentai was 'invented' or popularized b/c JP basically wouldn't allow p0rnz.  So this could be considered as an expansion of censorship to further include more and/or all 'art'.

  

Back up your skyrim mods, they'll be coming for mods next.  Maybe M$ bought havok for a reason.  Dems whamens wants to steal your spurgz



/s

This is what happens when someone has too much power in their hands.